Honoring soup dumpling master Yang Bing-Yi

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Xiao long bao from Din Tai Fung. Tomas Jivanda/Eater London

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Ninety-six-year-old Yang Bing-Yi, founder of the Taiwanese restaurant chain Din Tai Fung, has died, the company confirmed this week. Yang forever changed the modern global food scene with the chain, which he started as a cooking oil company in 1958 and turned into a dumpling and noodle restaurant in 1972: Din Tai Fung is generally credited with popularizing the thin-skinned, soup-filled dumplings called xiao long bao worldwide. They’re so popular now that even Trader Joe’s has its own version. 

Over his life, Yang — who left Shanghai for Taiwan at 20 (“with 20 dollars in his pocket,” the company writes) — saw Din Tai Fung become a culinary juggernaut, with more than 170 restaurants today in 13 countries. The chain and its dumplings are often referred to as having a cult following and are also critically beloved; the Michelin Guide has awarded its Hong Kong branch a star on five occasions. 

Din Tai Fung has attributed the quality of its dumplings to tireless tweaking of technique; each dumpling is, famously, 16 grams and involves 18 pinches. “As chefs, we have to prepare the best recipe for every product,” Yang told ABC in 2020. As the food writer and forthcoming Made in Taiwan author Clarissa Wei told the New York Times in a piece about Yang’s life, Din Tai Fung — which often has large windows to see into its kitchens — was notable for putting a spotlight on the labor and technique behind its famous soup dumplings. But in a bigger-picture sense, the chain has brought attention to Taiwanese cuisine. “What’s significant about Din Tai Fung is that really it was the first food brand out of Taiwan that introduced both Chinese and Taiwanese cookery to the world,” Wei told the Times. 

The Din Tai Fung effect continues. The chain is slated to open its first New York City location this year, but the American public is even hungrier for xiao long bao than any one chain can handle: New brands like MìLà (previously known as Xiao Chi Jie, or XCJ) and Laoban Dumplings (now available in Whole Foods) are making them easier to get than ever, without having to contend with the long lines at Din Tai Fung. — Bettina Makalintal

Related and unrelated reads:

• A Los Angeles Times piece worth revisiting: from 2013, the late Jonathan Gold on Din Tai Fung.
• In case you missed it last month: At two of LA’s biggest malls, there’s Din Tai Fung drama.
• From the New York Times, come for the hunger-inducing photos, stay for Julia Moskin’s fascinating report about our collective croissant obsession.
• Saveur inspires a new bucket-list addition: mushroom camp!
• Thanks to Grub Street, big-ass salads finally get their due. 

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